Parallels
by fringeperson
Summary: Kagome didn't fall down a rabbit hole and end up in Wonderland, and she wasn't carried away by a tornado to Oz, but still... she definitely wasn't in Tokyo any more. Both of those adventures had ended with the heroine waking up. When Kagome woke up, she still had to deal with InuYasha. Oneshot, complete, don't own, touches on SK.


"Buyo," Kagome said as she pulled herself up onto the edge of the well, her fat cat sitting on her shoulders as she stared around the open expanse of green grass and forest. "I don't think we're in Tokyo any more..."

The cat hopped down from her shoulders, and in an uncharacteristic display of solidarity from the fat feline, he walked at Kagome's side as she left the well behind in search of someone who could tell her where she was.

"Hey," a voice called from above her as she walked by a tree.

Kagome stopped and looked up.

"Hey, could you get me down?" asked the... vaguely familiar figure that was held to the tree by an arrow through his chest. He was a strange figure, with straw sticking out of his kimono in all sorts of places, as well as poking up through his hair near his ears.

"Uh... okay?" Kagome agreed, and reached up to grab the arrow. A hard yank and it was out, and the strange, straw-stuffed person fell to the ground.

"Uh, who are you?" Kagome asked.

"Name's InuYasha," the straw-stuffed figure answered, then crossed his eyes. "Uh, I could be wrong though," he admitted. "My head's stuffed with straw, so I'm not the brightest." Then he smiled and stood up. "But she loves me anyway!" he added happily, and just about danced over to another figure that Kagome hadn't noticed until then – a person resting on the ground... a person who, apart from the face, looked like they were made largely out of flower-pots.

This person didn't respond at all when InuYasha snuggled up to her side with a stupid smile on his face.

"Could you tell me where I am?" Kagome asked hopefully.

InuYasha looked up. "Nope," he admitted easily. "Haven't a clue."

Kagome sighed. "Right," she said, and decided to keep on moving. Better than watching a brainless straw man snuggle up to an unresponsive flower-pot woman.

Kagome _did_ see the next figure through the trees though. A sculpted Adonis, carved from pure white marble, was sitting at the edge of a flower-filled clearing. Kagome would have thought that an odd place and pose for a statue, but then she saw the stone figure breath in deeply, and it – he – looked up at her.

"Hello," Kagome said softly, and bowed politely. "I'm sorry to have intruded, but I'm lost."

"When lost, the best thing to do is return the way you came," the extremely attractive marble male informed her, and his voice was so deep it gave her goosebumps. "Unless you have forgotten it?"

Kagome blushed, a little shamed. She _had_ gotten turned about.

The stone figure sighed. "Well, as much as I am literally without a heart, I should not _like_ to be heartless. This Sesshoumaru will assist you Miss...?"

"Oh, I'm Kagome," she answered, and bowed again. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Sesshoumaru."

Sesshoumaru nodded. "I wish that I could return the sentiment," he said blandly. "But, as I have said already, I am literally without a heart. I want one, but as it stands, I can feel only the most passing of emotions."

"You want a heart?" Kagome asked.

Sesshoumaru nodded. "I have been a monument in this flower field for some time, and young couples visit frequently, always talking of love, marriage, children. I think these must be wonderful things, and a heart seems to be necessary to acquire them," he explained. "Now, if I am to accompany you, I'm afraid you're going to have to damage me."

Kagome's eyes went wide at the very idea. "Damage -?"

Sesshoumaru nodded. "I am carved out of the boulder behind me," he said. "And, if you will inspect it, you will see that my left hand is still attached to it most solidly. You're going to have to break off my hand at the wrist. I might have done it myself some years ago, the man who carved me left his tools behind, but unfortunately he left them just out of my reach," he said, and pointed to a patch of grass.

Kagome hurried over and found a slightly rusty chisel and a wooden hammer that had a rotted handle. She winced, but picked them up and returned to Sesshoumaru.

"In advance, I apologise," Kagome said.

Sesshoumaru nodded in acceptance, and turned away as Kagome struck at the thinnest part of Sesshoumaru's wrist. Thankfully, the break was quick to come and cleanly done.

"The couples always come and go from that direction," Sesshoumaru said, and pointed with his remaining hand. Sesshoumaru offered Kagome the elbow of the arm that no longer had a hand, which she hesitantly wrapped both of her arms around, and he escorted her away from the flower field.

They'd barely entered the tree-line when a small voice echoed up from the ground to their left.

"Chase or run?" the voice asked. "I might be able to handle the small fluffy one, but the big ones scare me... Oh... I'm such a coward!" the voice moaned sadly.

Kagome looked around until she spotted a small fox, with his paws over his head and a turquoise bow at the base of his tail.  
"Hey," she said gently. "What's the matter?"

"I'm such a coward!" the fox answered, eyes tight shut and his paws still over his head. "I'm scared of everything, and the other foxes all laugh at me because I'm not brave enough to pull tricks!"

"Well, a brave person is really just a scared person," Kagome said gently, "who decided that something was more important than their being afraid, so they did what they had to do anyway."

The fox let one eye open a tiny little bit. "Really?" he asked.

"Really," Kagome answered with a smile and a nod.

"Thank you," the fox said softly. "I... I think I'll be able to face the other foxes now..." he decided, and vanished in a puff of smoke.

"That was... kind of you," Sesshoumaru said when Kagome returned to his side.

Kagome smiled back up at him and kissed his cheek.

A little further they walked, Sesshoumaru with a peculiar expression on his face, and the pair stepped out into another clearing.

"That's the well I climbed out of," Kagome said. "That's how Buyo and I got here!"

"Logic would suggest that you would therefore return by the same path that brought you," Sesshoumaru offered. "This Sesshoumaru will... think of you often, Kagome," he said plainly.

Kagome blinked up at him. "Sesshoumaru... Uh, um... if you want a heart..." she started.

"Very much. I wish to know the feelings of all those couples who visited my flower field for myself," Sesshoumaru said.

"You can have my heart," Kagome offered softly, and got up on her tip-toes to kiss his perfectly smooth lips.

Then Buyo, the wretched cat, wove between her legs and tripped her up, sending her backwards into the well.

~oOo~

Kagome woke up with a start.

"That was one weird dream," she said as she turned to watch the embers of their camp fire.

"Stupid girl, what's gotten into you?" InuYasha asked grouchily.

Kagome blinked. "InuYasha, answer me something," she requested.

"What?" the half-demon demanded.

"Can you read, write, or do any sums at all?" Kagome asked.

"Che," InuYasha scoffed. "Of course not! That sort of thing isn't useful for anything!"

Kagome rolled her eyes. "It is too," she countered. "And I can do all those things. I'm teaching Shippo how to do them, and Sango and Miroku know how as well. If anybody here is stupid, InuYasha, it's _you_. You're so stupid you're clinging to a past romance with 'Kikyo' made out of clay that can't, not just won't, but _can't_ love you back."  
"Huh?" InuYasha asked, confused. "Where's this coming from Kagome?"

"It sounds to me as though the miko had an epiphany in her sleep," quipped another voice from the shadows. A voice so deep it raised goosebumps all over Kagome's skin.

"Sesshoumaru!" InuYasha growled. "The hell are you doing sneaking up on us in the dark?"

And indeed it was Sesshoumaru who stepped into the dim light cast by the fire. "This Sesshoumaru was passing," he answered blandly. "And heard the miko. Can it be that you truly are so ignorant, little brother?" Sesshoumaru asked, mildly incredulous.

"None of your business!" InuYasha snapped.

"Translation: yes," Kagome muttered, and looked from her 'protector' up to Sesshoumaru. A strange desire, born from an idea that had been planted by the dream she had just woken from, niggled at her. It was a crazy idea, but they'd defeated Naraku a couple of days ago and were headed back to the well, the complete Shikon no Tama hanging from her neck, so there wasn't going to be any issues about not finishing the quest if she got herself killed for this.

Still... did she want to?

It would be one _hell_ of a way to go, so, Kagome figured, why the heck not? Eyes fixed on Sesshoumaru, Kagome freed herself from her sleeping bag and walked up to him.

When he looked down at her, Kagome rose up on her tip-toes and kissed him, square on the lips.

"Wha-?! Kagome?!" InuYasha bellowed.

"Sit," Kagome said out of the corner of her mouth, and InuYasha crashed to the ground just as Sesshoumaru's arms wrapped around her waist, and he deepened the kiss with a single-mindedness that stunned Kagome, even as she happily enjoyed the attention.

"Miko... Kagome," Sesshoumaru said softly when their lips finally parted so that they could both breathe more easily. "If you have done this simply to annoy InuYasha, then this Sesshoumaru _will_ eviscerate you."

"InuYasha's been firmly slotted into the 'friend' column for a _long_ time," Kagome answered with a wry twist to her lips. "I'd only just started to have a romantic interest when Kikyo was brought back, and the way he chased after her kind of put me off wilfully hurting myself that way."

"Wha...? Ka- Kagome?" InuYasha asked weakly from his crater in the earth.

Sesshoumaru smiled in satisfaction, and dived in to kiss her again.

~The End~


End file.
